I can taste them now.
on February 9, 2018 at 12:01 amChapter: The Seventh Power
Location: Mexico somewhere, The Fans! universe
Awwww, Mist reads my webcomic!
Mist may have senses far beyond our own, but it’s only our sins that he chooses to see.I was a little nervous about putting Mist at the top of this food chain. One of the traditional rules of a crossover is a sort of balance. You don’t normally want, say, a Superman/Spider-Man crossover where Lex shows up and just completely owns Dr. Octopus in every way, because making Doc Ock (and therefore, by implication, Spider-Man) look uncool will annoy at least half your audience.
So a more traditional path here would’ve been for Mist to recognize the Cheese’s power, contact him, and come to some sort of alliance. And if they ended up fighting later, they’d just be too– ungh!– evenly matched for there to be a clear winner!But unlike the villains mentioned above, ours weren’t static. The Cheese’s seeming omnipotence had already taken a hit in his last appearance, which would be the last time he’d have a solidly antagonistic role, so IIRC, David felt it was better for long-term developments to highlight his limitations here, especially as related to other dimensions and magic. (Cheesey could’ve at least counterattacked had Mist been in the Walkyverse.)Mist, on the other hand, was to be Fans Book Three’s season-ending Big Bad, so it was likewise important he seemed unbeatable at this stage. Some of the details of Mist’s abilities were more inconsistent than I now would like, but his basic deal is established right here: he can take you into some version of Hell, whether you deserve to be there or not. Compared to what he’ll get up to later, though, this is version 1.0.
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I mean, let’s get real here. A guy whose face is made of stuff that a mouse eats is not going to be at the top of the food chain.
Did you know that your face is also made of things a mouse eats. I mean you have to be dead first, but so does The Cheese.
“Mist may have senses far beyond our own, but it’s only our sins that he chooses to see.”
Well DUH. MiSTing is all about pointing out and mocking the awful.
Maybe it’s because I haven’t read much of Fans, but Mist’s powers confuse me. It kinda looks like he’s reaching through the fourth wall to me.
That first sentence from T… Now Mist reminds me of that demon guy from the time Hal Jordan was the Spectre, who turned out to be completely blind to the good in humanity.
“You don’t normally want, say, a Superman/Spider-Man crossover where Lex shows up and just completely owns Dr. Octopus in every way, because making Doc Ock (and therefore, by implication, Spider-Man) look uncool will annoy at least half your audience.”
I’d personally argue the smart move here would be to not even have the two villains meet. Supes and Spidy meet, eventually realize they’re on the same side and end up taking out each others normal villain. Supes wins because Doc Ock has no baseline to even begin to deal with what he can do (pretty sure he’s never had to interact with anyone from Marvel on that level). Spidy meanwhile just drives Lex nuts because he’s just so different from the DC hero set Lex deals with normally between the tactics he uses and the constant stream of smart ass comments.
I love that statement from T. It’s one of my pet peeves in crossovers, and why I think that the Avengers/JLA crossovers is one of the best out there. Some of the plot itself can be kinda stilted and disjunct, but the match-ups are solidly balanced and there are a lot of interesting clarifications on the “power scale” (which was also mentioned here a few comics ago; one fun example from Avengers/JLA is that Flash is faster than Quicksilver – but only in the DC ‘verse because the speedforce doesn’t exist in the Marvel ‘verse, and Quicksilver is always speedy because it’s in his DNA as a mutant).
But I dunno about your solution there. Personally, I feel that the best superhero stories are based on overcoming insurmountable odds. You never want your hero to succeed too easily; not as the main story arc, anyway. And that still doesn’t solve the initial problem: “…making Doc Ock (and therefore, by implication, Spider-Man) look uncool will annoy at least half your audience.” Superman making Ock look wimpy isn’t really any better than Lex making him look wimpy.
Sure, Supes could take Ock off guard, but one of Superman’s biggest weaknesses is that he relies too heavily on his powers and doesn’t have to be as creative or quick on his feet as other heroes. Pairing him against Ock could provide a certain challenge, if Ock adapts quickly enough and creatively enough to the scenario. And that immediately seems more interesting to me, and more challenging for the hero. Makes you root harder for him to succeed.
I like your Spidey idea though, he’d be hilarious cracking wise against Luthor. They’d definitely be an interesting match-up because they both consistently rely on their ingenuity and quick thinking.
I forget what’s next, but I even tho I’ve read this arc already, I’m worried for Shanna and Meighan falling into this pit: Mission accomplished.
Wait, does Mist then actually dunk souls into hell later? I know Katherine says he does, but I had thought she was an unreliable narrator, since she was subject to illusions designed to be as terrifying as possible. And unlike here, nobody seemed to go anywhere.